


Chicago

by HashtagLEH



Series: Something Like a Family [5]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy Hargrove & Eleven | Jane Hopper Friendship, Billy Hargrove Has a Crush on Steve Harrington, Billy Hargrove Tries to Be a Better Person, Billy fights the monsters too!, Canonical Child Abuse, Eleven | Jane Hopper Needs A Hug, Found Family, Gay Billy Hargrove, Gen, Homophobic Language, Period-Typical Homophobia, Protective Billy Hargrove, Protective Eleven | Jane Hopper, Stranger Things 2, again it's all Neil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27600560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagLEH/pseuds/HashtagLEH
Summary: Billy is all for killing this Ray Carroll guy - he's a complete bastard, after all - but does it really have to beElwho does it?If Billy has anything to say about it, it doesn't.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper & Billy Hargrove, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Kali Prasad
Series: Something Like a Family [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009263
Comments: 19
Kudos: 138





	Chicago

**Author's Note:**

> The first bit I just sort of summarized, because I didn't want anything to change in the events up to a certain point and so it would just be Billy's reactions to what he learns and that _could_ be interesting but probably wouldn't be, lol. Once the dialogue starts is when it really diverges.

Billy is pretty sure that Kali doesn’t care for him. Actually, he’s pretty sure that none of the others do either. Mick, the black girl with the Afro, might be a bit more friendly, but he didn’t think that had anything to do with his own personality but more to do with the fact that he had brought El to find her sister.

But with Kali specifically, he could tell somehow by the way her lip curled or her expression hardened when he was around that she didn’t want him there. It was an expression he was used to interpreting him others – mainly in Neil. So he wasn’t altogether upset about it, because at this point he may as well expect everyone to dislike him on sight.

It did grate at some part of him though, because this was El’s pseudo-sister, and _hello_ , he’d been looking out for her for longer than Kali had even known her – if one didn’t count the time in the lab, which Billy didn’t because El didn’t even remember it – and so he felt he should be deserving of a little bit of slack. He was the one who had _brought_ the twelve-year-old to Kali, so he really didn’t get what was up with the nasty looks. Or, they weren’t exactly obviously nasty or some sort of wordless demand that he leave; Billy didn’t think that a lot of others would pick up on it, but he was pretty used to measuring expressions to figure out when he needed to get the hell out of dodge, so he could tell that she wanted him to decide to leave.

But that wasn’t happening. For one thing, if Hopper even _suspected_ that he was the one to take El somewhere without his approval and then return without her, the short life he had left would be pretty hellish. For another, Billy figured out pretty quickly that while Kali cared for El, she and her little gang wouldn’t exactly be good influences on the twelve-year-old. Which wasn’t to say that Billy would be either, but he wasn’t about to leave El to live out the rest of her life on the streets of Chicago, searching for revenge and getting up to all sorts of trouble.

This realization didn’t happen slowly, all things considered. At first he had been content to let El and Kali talk on the roof of the warehouse – probably bonding and reminiscing and explaining their powers or whatever else it was girls got up to. He had stayed with the other four downstairs, warming up before being roped into a game of poker that he had no qualms trouncing them in. They didn’t talk about anything too personal, but Billy did casually mention that he was from California, and that made Dottie warm up to him a little because she was also from California, but she was farther North. He could pick up from passing comments between them all that they had found each other through Kali, and so their loyalty was to her.

He wasn’t uncomfortable around them either, especially as they let down their own guards a bit the longer he didn’t stare or make comments about the state of their dress. He was used to people like them and people who looked like them, and he figured that they were the same as the homeless people he’d been around before – people just trying to get by and people living their lives to the best of their abilities under the circumstances they were placed under.

He didn’t start to feel like things might be wrong until hours later.

He’d gone upstairs to a room Kali directed him to, and found El already sleeping. He’d leaned against the bed on the floor next to her and passed out, and when he woke up to Kali in the room, she told them both that it was time for them to meet the others properly. Or, because Billy had already spent more than an hour with the others and had already properly met them, for El to meet them properly. (Because just as Billy had earlier suspected, El was tired out from all the events of the day and had passed out for a few hours right after returning from the roof. The initial excitement of meeting her sister had faded, so that she was actually _able_ to sleep by then.)

Kali hadn’t looked at Billy once they were back downstairs again, gathered in a different room around a table. She had introduced them all to El, explained a little bit of their back stories or their jobs, and started off into a spiel about fighting back against those who had hurt them.

And Billy understood that. He’d thought about that himself, fantasized about getting his revenge on various people over the years. And he didn’t _begrudge_ them exactly for going after these guys. But it sounded scarily like a recruitment speech, and he didn’t want to encourage El to kill _more_ people.

He knew she’d killed before – she even said so herself, when the others started laughing a little at her (making him reevaluate his generous opinions of them, because how dare they laugh at a twelve-year-old appearing nervous at being told these five veritable grownups – to her mind, at least – went and hunted people down for revenge). His heart tightened the same way it had when she’d mentioned it casually in the drive there that she had killed the people who had hurt her in the lab, but he shoved it aside.

But it was still something else entirely to go _hunt down_ these people to kill them, and Billy knew that El was bothered by some of the people she’d killed before, and why should she just pile more guilt on her shoulders, especially at such a young age?

He held out hope though – uncharacteristically – that the five just wanted El to _see_ it, rather than actively participate. And while he didn’t care for that idea either, he wasn’t going to try to convince El otherwise. It was her own choice, and it may even be cathartic for her to see unshakeable proof that certain men and women wouldn’t be able to come after her anymore.

Kali had then led El outside, and Billy was glad when all of them followed, so that it didn’t look so strange that he did. He stood off to the side, listening to Kali coaching her sister how to channel her power to move a train. And Kali’s words _did_ make sense. Anger lent more power even just to his own punches and blows, so it would surely make it easier for El to use, too. When El _did_ manage it, while the others clapped and cheered for her, he smirked a little, the most he would allow himself to smile for her. She looked tired but relieved, and smiled small but triumphant when she caught Billy’s eye. He carefully avoided looking at the bloody nose, because why did that happen to her? Was it her brain breaking under the strain? He didn’t know, but Kali didn’t seem concerned so he decided to take his cue from her and assumed that this was normal.

They’d gone back inside to look at a wall that Kali had set up, where she tracked all the people she knew were responsible for the goings on in the lab. It was impressive and a little sickening to see, but he didn’t say anything when Kali glanced over, a look almost like a glare on her face, like she was daring him to protest when she asked El if she recognized anyone.

Billy didn’t say a word, just raising an unimpressed eyebrow, like all of this didn’t bother him. Normally it probably wouldn’t, but _El_ was here. She was a kid. He tried imagining what he would do if this had happened to Max, if she was the one being convinced to go after her revenge, and he had to stop at the angry, sick feeling swooping through his gut.

El picked out a man – Ray Carroll – and from there things happened very quickly. Just as Billy had seen El do with Kali, she sat with the picture in her hands and went to “the dark place”, locating the man very quickly. After that Kali and Dottie took El aside to give her a makeover – Dottie’s words, not his. He was glad, because they were headed to find some clothes that would actually _fit_ the little girl, and look more flattering than the grown man’s clothes and overalls she wore, and that could only be a good thing.

But when he saw the slicked back greaser hair and dark smudges around El’s eyes that matched her black jacket, he smirked a little to hide the grimace that wanted to appear. She undeniably fit into the clothes better than the flannel, but the innocence in her eyes made her look like she was dressing up in big sister’s clothes. (Which, he supposed, is _exactly_ what she was doing.) They fit her body, but they didn’t fit _her_ , and Billy made a mental note to take her to a mall or something to find some clothes that _she_ would like to wear.

But, he didn’t want to squash the hopefully expectant look on her face when she glanced between them all, so he said when she looked at him the longest, “Bitchin’.”

“Bitchin’,” El echoed, brow furrowing briefly at the unfamiliar word, and Billy snorted a little.

They left the area in an ugly brown van that smelled like weed and wet leaves, Billy crammed in the back between Dottie and Funshine. When Mick pulled out a cigarette and started smoking from the driver’s seat, window still rolled up, Billy opened his own pack, handing one to Dottie as well when she stretched out a demanding hand. They lit up, and Billy allowed himself to get caught up in their enthusiasm as they rocked out to The Runaways. He accepted a plastic black and white face mask, wincing a little to himself at the all-too-accurate baby doll mask that Kali decided on for El. He didn’t say anything though, because El looked pleased to be a part of them all, to be accepted.

They stopped at a gas station, which Billy was glad for because he hadn’t eaten since the gas station the night before and he was ready to grab a few things. It appeared the others had the same idea, because after Kali used her (admittedly impressive) powers to distract the cashier, Axel goofed with, “Okay, contestants, you have a minute and a half, let’s begin your supermarket sweep!”

Billy had no compunctions about this kind of crime, and he immediately set off for some food. El had the same idea, and went for the cold section, and he watched her pick up an apple before noticing the Eggos and immediately setting it down in favor of grabbing those instead.

Billy sighed mentally to himself – honestly, what was her deal with Eggos? – and followed after her.

“C’mon, kid,” he grunted, grabbing a couple of apples and shoving them in the pockets of her jacket, which she allowed with no resistance. “You have pockets, use ‘em.” He shoved a couple of single-serve protein bars in there as well, because the pockets were deep and you might as well.

“Hey!” he heard the cashier’s voice bark out before he could grab some sodas from the cooler section as he’d intended. “Put that back, or I’ll blow your head off.”

He heard a gun cock, and his blood immediately went cold. He quickly abandoned the cooler section, appearing slowly at the front and seeing Axel staring with wide eyes and hands up in the direction of the bathroom, which the cashier had come out of much sooner than expected.

“You hear me, freak?” the cashier demanded, and Billy came out from his aisle at the same time Kali appeared from the one next to him, telling the cashier calmly but carefully to put the gun down.

“Stay back. Stay back,” he insisted, waving the gun between each of them and looking panicked.

Kali was trying to talk him down, but Billy was tense because he could see that the cashier wasn’t going to back off, and he didn’t know what these people would do because of that. He hoped Kali just used her powers, made him – not see them, or something. He didn’t want anyone to get hurt today – at least, not anyone innocent caught in the crossfire of their rage.

Then El was appearing behind him, boxes of Eggos put down behind her, and with a furious yell, she threw out her hand at the cashier. He went flying back into the Styrofoam coolers, passing out immediately with the sudden force.

“Damn, Shirley,” Axel said, all of them gathering together in a group to stare at the unconscious man. Billy breathed a sigh of relief, glancing back when he heard police sirens. How on Earth had they gotten there so quickly? How had the cashier been able to call them?

He didn’t have time to ponder those questions though, and he grabbed El’s arm in one hand and Funshine’s in the other, tugging toward the door.

“Let’s go!” he said urgently, backing away. “Go! Go, go, go, go!”

“Mick! We gotta go, Mick!” Axel called as they got outside, running toward the opened door of the van. Kali slammed it closed behind them while Mick abandoned the pump and climbed back into the driver’s seat. In moments they were tearing away, leaving the police and the gas station behind.

***

They arrived at the apartment complex in Lilburn around five, just a few minutes after it went dark. Billy was pretty sure he was the only one who was ~~worried~~ antsy, and pulled out another cigarette to calm his nerves as El looked inside the apartment from “the dark place”, determining if Carroll was alone.

When they got inside the apartment, he looked over into the living room to see the man leaned over the TV, trying to fix it. Billy knew it would be useless – El was the one who had destroyed the signal, and only she would be able to bring it back.

He felt a wave of revulsion and hate shudder through him at the sight of the man. He had been sitting there, on his recliner watching TV and drinking beer, and the similarities to Neil would have been enough for Billy to dislike him on sight, but it was knowing that this man had been the one to turn El’s mom into – _that_ – and the one to punish and hurt El and Kali when they were little, that truly allowed that hate to boil up. This man wasn’t just the lazy slob he no doubt appeared to everyone else – he was an evil that Billy would have no problem seeing die.

“Hello, Ray,” Kali said mildly when the idiot didn’t even hear them come up behind him. The man whirled around, alarm in his expression.

When he cursed and tried escaping, Billy watched flatly as Funshine grabbed him and forced him to sit back in his recliner.

“Just, please…” Carroll pleaded, “Just take what you want.”

“Oh, we will,” Axel said, and out the corner of his eye Billy could see the guy crouch down a little, condescending but also in unmistakable threat.

Carroll stared, looking confused, and Dottie bent down a little, saying, “Where’s your wallet?”

“Bedroom,” Carroll stammered. “My bedroom. My jeans.”

Dottie nodded lightly, looking excited and unbothered as she tugged at Axel’s arm. “Come on,” she said, disappearing around the corner. Axel followed after her, but Billy stayed in the room, hovering around the doorway. Funshine stood like a massive wall at the hallway, blocking possible escape out the front door, while Kali and El rounded to stand in front of the man stuck in the chair.

They each took off their masks, Kali first and then El when she gave her a reassuring nod, and then Kali said flatly, “Do you remember us?”

Billy leaned against the wall, affecting carelessness but inwardly seething when Carroll shook his head at Kali’s question, looking lost. If Carroll couldn’t even remember these girls, then how many times had he tortured little children? Billy hoped Kali made his death painful.

The lights flickered then, and Billy blinked, and then the twelve-year-old and the seventeen-year-old had disappeared to be replaced with what looked like a nine- or ten-year-old and a five-year-old. They were dressed in white shirts and blue jumpers, and looked so _young_. Billy knew that it was Kali using her powers, didn’t know why she was making _him_ see it too, but it just further convinced him that a broken face was the very _least_ of what this guy deserved.

The illusion broke when Kali struck Ray hard in the face, forcing him out of the chair to collapse on his hands and knees on the ground.

“Please,” he begged, hand out, “Please.”

“You hurt Mama,” El said fiercely, and then with a yell, she was throwing him into the wall with a hand outstretched. It was reminiscent of how she’d thrown the cashier at the gas station just a couple of hours before, but this time was clearly much more punishing, as the wall cracked and broke behind him with the force of his landing. Billy swallowed a little, stepping back so that he wasn’t in kicking distance of the guy, watching coldly as he begged the girls, made excuses…it made no difference to Billy and none to them, either.

But then the man had the _audacity_ to bring up Brenner – the one El knew as Papa. He knew that it was a step too far even before the tears appeared in El’s eyes.

He was expecting Kali to strike out at any moment. For her to make the man see nightmares come to life in front of him, for her to let loose with a wild punch, even for her to pull out a knife or a gun or something and carve him up.

What he _wasn’t_ expecting was for Kali to say, “Do it, Jane.”

Billy straightened, suddenly alarmed, because this was _not_ what he’d understood to be happening. He hadn’t brought El to Chicago so that her sister could teach her how to kill without remorse, for her to learn to shove feelings aside to make way for anger.

He could’ve kicked himself for his naïveté, for his hope earlier that day. He vowed to do so at his earliest opportunity. Because if El did this, if she grasped onto that anger while she killed someone in revenge, then she was going to lose some part of herself that would make her more like _Billy_. More like Kali, like Axel and Dottie and Mick and Funshine and all the other people he’d met who were just so _angry_ all the time, because they didn’t know what else to be.

He didn’t want that for her – he didn’t want that for _anyone_. This was the whole reason he protected Max from getting beaten, why he kept everyone at arm’s length. Get too close and they became like him.

And now he was doing it to _El_. To a twelve-year-old who didn’t have many people in her life as it was, but had somehow chosen him as a safe person to go to when she needed help. If he let her do this, if he just stood by and watched and didn’t do _anything_ to try to convince her to back away, then he didn’t want to think about the kind of person that El might become.

“Do it!” Kali insisted, as El seemed lost in her own world.

El’s hand shot out, and her powers wrapped around Ray’s neck, shoving him backward while choking him.

“El, no!” Billy said, taking a half step forward. El didn’t seem to hear him, Ray falling over as his face went red.

“Shut up,” Kali told him absently, not looking over at him. Then, to El, “Not too quick. He wasn’t so generous with your mother.”

The grip loosened a little, and Billy said, “El, you don’t want to be the one do this. You can still have your damn revenge – but you don’t have to be the one to kill this fucker.” He didn’t step closer, because he didn’t know what either of them might do if he got in their way, and he wasn’t suicidal or masochistic.

Kali looked over at him then, fire in her eyes. “This is the whole reason we are _here_ ,” she sneered. “Jane _deserves_ this – deserves to give payback to the man who destroyed her _family_.”

“El, your family isn’t gone,” Billy said steadily, desperately. “You have Hopper, and – that Mike kid you always talk about.”

“If you don’t want to see this, then get the hell out,” Kali snarled at him, eyes flashing.

“Your mom wanted you to find your sister, not the people who hurt her,” Billy reminded El, ignoring the Indian girl. “She wouldn’t want you looking for revenge. She would want you to be _happy_.” At least, he hoped so.

El’s fingers, outstretched in a tight position as she choked the life from Carroll, faltered suddenly. A moment, and then her hand relaxed and her arm dropped to her side. Billy began to breathe again, as though _he_ were the one who’d been released from the chokehold, but Kali’s expression became angry and confused.

“What’s wrong?” Kali demanded, and when El didn’t answer, kept staring down, she insisted, “What’s _wrong_?”

“We’ve got a problem!” Axel’s voice echoed down the hallway a moment before he and Dottie appeared from the back rooms, postures tense.

“Kids,” Dottie said, sounding stunned and unsure what to do in the face of this new development. “In the apartment.” Billy’s blood chilled.

“Please…” Carroll whispered, but Kali was unaffected, looking intently back at El.

“Did he show your mother mercy?” she demanded. “No. He took her from you, without hesitation.”

“We gotta go, K!” Axel shouted. “They called the cops.”

“We finish this first,” Kali said darkly, and whirled back to El. “Jane, now!”

“El, _don’t_ ,” Billy said, stepping closer to try and get her attention. She was still staring down at the man begging on the floor, and at the picture that Billy could now see next to it, of two little girls.

But Kali was impatient and afraid, and she snarled, “We’ve heard enough from _you_.”

A moment later the apartment around him became the house on Old Cherry Road, and Neil was advancing on him with fury in his eyes. Billy stumbled a little in surprise at the sudden change, heart beginning to beat faster in an instinctive fear response to that look in Neil’s eyes, the posture he carried himself with as he neared closer.

“You’ve been lusting after that rich boy, haven’t you?” Neil demanded, hands snapping the belt out of its loops in preparation for a beating. “You know how I feel about faggots in my home. Maybe this time beating it out of you will actually work.”

Billy made a sound in his throat, involuntary and afraid as he backed up. His back hit the wall – he hadn’t realized it was so close.

“Maybe it would work better if I beat it out of this _other_ kid though, hm?” Neil mused, advancing closer. “What was his name? Ste…”

“Get out of my _fucking_ head!” Billy snarled, his fury suddenly reminding him that _this wasn’t real_. Kali had used her powers, made him see things because she needed him out of the way while she convinced El to kill Ray Carroll, and he’d forgotten that for a moment as he’d fallen back on instinct.

At first he thought that Kali had obeyed his demand, because the Hawkins house disappeared around him to reveal that he was still in the Gramercy apartment. His eyes adjusted just in time to see Kali pointing a gun at Ray, and then El’s head jerked and the gun was flying out of her hands and into the blinds, shattering through the glass door on the other side.

He had a brief moment to feel relief that El hadn’t gone through with it, and disappointment that she’d stopped Kali from doing it, before Axel was insisting, “Kali, we gotta go!”

They raced out the door, and in exasperation Billy ran to the balcony, picking through the glass to grab the gun so that there was no trackable evidence. When he got to the front door, El was waiting for him, Kali further down the hall and looking impatient and angry as she waited.

“Don’t wait – run!” Billy told them both, irritated that they’d paused for him, and El obeyed, following behind Kali with him bringing up the rear.

They piled into the van once again, more panicked than they had been at the gas station because the police were much closer behind them now than they had been then.

They weren’t even a mile down the road when Kali told El angrily, “If you wanted to show mercy, that is your choice. But don’t you _ever_ take away mine. Ever. Do you understand? _Do you understand?_ ”

“Lay off, she’s fucking _twelve_ ,” Billy grunted, pulling the gun from where he’d shoved it in his waistband. There was yelling for a moment as they all clearly thought he was pulling the weapon _on_ her or some shit, but he just shoved the gun into her hands.

“Don’t leave your goddamn fingerprints behind,” he said with a curled lip of disgust.

Kali had looked about to rip into him too, for his part in convincing El not to kill the guy most likely, but now she looked at him with begrudging thanks. He rolled his eyes, pulling a cigarette from his pocket and lighting up, ignoring her pursed lips as she clearly held back in her anger.

***

Later, Billy and El sat together up in the room where they’d slept before. Kali had said she needed to think, which Billy was pretty sure was code for “I’m pissed off and need some time alone”, because she disappeared right after. The others had glanced at each other and shrugged, unaffected by the happenings of the night, before going off to play poker again or some shit – Billy didn’t really care. He could see El was shaken, upset, and so he had taken her by the shoulder and steered her back up to the room. She sat on the chair, looking quietly off into the distance, and so Billy had seated himself on the bed. Even though the chair was higher than the bed, his height over her meant that they were now looking at each other eye to eye.

“Do you think Kali is bad?” El asked him, breaking the silence.

Billy wasn’t sure what it was that he’d expected her to say first, but it certainly wasn’t that, and it took a moment for his brain to catch up to respond.

“Do _you_ think she’s bad?” he turned the question on her, trying to get a feel for what she was thinking.

El was quiet for a moment, fingers picking at the handkerchief tied around her wrist, and then she said quietly, “She kills lots of people. She _wants_ to kill lots of people.”

Billy tilted his head at that, evaluating the girl and trying to figure out why exactly this was important to her. Was it because it was her sister, or because she knew that she and Kali were alike in many ways and wondered if she was like her in this one?

“She told me – to make it slow,” El stuttered a little, clenching her hands into fists like she was fighting with herself to get the words out. “So it would hurt more. And I wanted to. I wanted him to hurt.”

“Why did she want to hurt him?” Billy prodded.

El blinked at him, confused at the question that she knew they both knew the answer to. “He hurt her. He hurt _us_.”

Billy nodded in agreement. “Do you think she would have killed the cashier? The man at the gas station.”

El shook her head. “No. I don’t – think so. She told him – put the gun down. _I_ hurt him.”

“He’ll be fine,” Billy dismissed when it looked like she was going to eat herself up with guilt over that last statement, and that’s not the point he was trying to make. “But you’re right. He hadn’t done anything. Kali didn’t hurt him. I don’t think Kali is bad any more than I think _you_ are bad, kid.”

“Then why – did you tell me not to?” El asked him, voice quiet as she looked down at her lap. “I’ve killed before.”

“Because killing to protect yourself and killing for revenge are _very_ different things,” Billy said promptly. “And you’re twelve. You don’t want to fuck yourself up like that so young.”

“But Kali…”

“Kali is angry,” Billy cut her off. “And she’s been alone a lot longer than you have. She doesn’t know what else to do, so she goes after these bad guys. But kid, you’re _not_ alone. You don’t have to take the same shitty path that she has.”

“I _am_ alone,” El said though, looking sad and distressed. “At the cabin. Hopper gone. Friends gone. Mama _gone_.”

Billy didn’t really know what to say to that, but he was saved from answering – “saved” being a very loose term – by Kali’s entrance to the room, requesting if she could sit down. Billy stood up when El nodded, but didn’t leave, standing off to the side, leaning against the wall and folding his arms.

Kali glanced at him, her gaze not nearly so hostile as it had been the last time he’d seen her, before sitting on the bed where Billy had sat and looking at El.

“I was once just like you, you know that?” she said, and Billy wanted to roll his eyes at the cliché phrasing, at the explanation that the Indian girl was just about to get into.

But then El looked away, clearly not having any more patience for what she knew was coming than Billy did, and Kali visibly changed tactics.

“I remember the day I came to the rainbow room and you were gone,” she said, and even Billy could hear the echoed heartbreak in her tone, the memory of that pain where she discovered her sister was no longer there.

“So, when my gifts were strong enough, I used them to escape. And I ran. I ran away as far as I could. And it was there, far away, that I found a place to hide. A family. A home.” Her voice broke at that, and Billy pushed away the sympathy that wanted to rise up. “Just like you and your policeman. But they couldn’t help me. So, eventually, I lost them, too.”

Fuck it – he was feeling the sympathy now, Billy decided, realizing just exactly how Kali must have lost her found family. All the hiding, the killing people who had hurt her – it made sense before, when he’d thought about her being trapped away in a lab again to be experimented on. But if those fuckers had killed that family that she’d created? It made even more sense that she was getting revenge for _them_ , too. He couldn’t even fault her for it.

“So, I decided to play the part,” Kali said after a pause, her voice hardening. “To stop hiding. To use my gifts against those who hurt us. You’re now faced with the same choice, Jane. Go back into hiding and hope they don’t find you. Fight, and face them again.”

“Fight who?” El asked, subdued.

“The man who calls himself our father.”

Billy watched El’s expression change, watched it harden in anger at the memory. “Papa is _dead_ ,” she said strongly.

Kali didn’t say anything, but El’s face suddenly went white and she turned around in her chair to look at something behind her. Billy’s gaze shot to where she was looking, not having heard anyone, but whatever she was staring at, only she could see. And then Billy understood – Kali was playing tricks on her mind.

“You’re not real,” El said, realizing the same thing, though her voice was shaky and her eyes were teary so it didn’t really _matter_ , because the emotions were still ignited as though it _were_ real. Billy remembered his own vision earlier that night, and glared fiercely over at the girl sitting calmly on the bed.

“I swear to _God_ , bitch, if you hurt her or scare her…” Billy started straightening and dropping his folded arms so they rested at his sides.

“She’ll be fine,” Kali said, watching as El listened to the vision, walking slowly closer to the door.

“Go away.” Her voice was weak, and Billy clenched his hands into fists, but didn’t say anything else, because El may only be twelve, he reminded himself, but she wasn’t weak and she could stop Kali at any time. Billy really wasn’t needed here.

El backed up until she was sitting on the chair again, looking at something that was looming over her, more tears pooling in her eyes, but she still wasn’t stopping it and Billy had never felt more useless than he did then, and that made him angry. But he really should let El deal with this herself – she was a kid, but she wasn’t a _child_. He just had to keep reminding himself of that so he didn’t grab Kali by her huge hair or some shit to get her to stop this.

“Get out of my head,” El whispered, shaking her head and closing her eyes, tears spilling over. A moment later, she _screamed_ it, lights flickering with the force of her power running through her uncontrollably with her emotions.

Billy was ready to punch Kali or some shit, never mind the fact that she was a fucking girl, but then El folded in on herself, crying while the lights went back to normal. Billy contented himself with going to stand beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder to let her know he was there, in case she needed the reminder. He was pretty sure that Kali had gotten rid of him in whatever mind-whammy she had given El, because El hadn’t responded or reacted at all when Billy had spoken.

“This isn’t a prison, Jane,” Kali said, now crouched in front of El on the chair. Billy glared down at her, unable to help it as the kid kept crying quietly to herself. “You’re always free to return to your policeman. Or stay, and avenge your mother. Let us heal our wounds – together.”

Kali smiled at her, and at any other time Billy would have thought about how kind it was, welcoming and hopeful for El’s continued presence. Right then though he just thought it seemed triumphant, like she had already convinced El to stay and now it was just a matter of integrating her into their group and this life. She left then though, and Billy exhaled to try and rid himself of the tension that had settled in his shoulders.

“You okay, kid?” Billy asked her roughly, squeezing her shoulder where his hand still rested, in case she’d forgotten he was there or some shit.

El nodded, sniffing a little and scrubbing at her eyes with the heel of one hand. She turned around in the chair, and Billy sat himself back in the spot Kali had now vacated.

 _Damn musical chairs,_ he thought absently.

Out loud, he said, “I’m not gonna tell you how to live your life, kid. But you also shouldn’t rush into killing people all crazy to get back at them for what they did. You want to do that, fine. But consider your options first.”

“Kali is my sister,” El told him in a small voice.

“And not being around her all the time isn’t going to change that,” Billy said with a sigh. “You were still her sister before you met yesterday, yeah? That’s not going to go away. But she’s not your only family.”

“Mama is _gone_ ,” El reminded him mournfully.

“What about Hopper?” Billy tried. “Isn’t he like your dad? Or your Aunt Becky, or – those kids you talk about. Mike, and – Buster or something.”

“Dustin?” El clarified, looking confused.

“Yeah – that kid,” Billy waved it off. “Wouldn’t you consider them family?”

“Friends,” El said, and Billy wasn’t sure whether she was agreeing with him or correcting him, considering her lack of knowledge in certain areas, so he just nodded.

“You have more choices than you think, kid,” Billy told her. “And fighting back, you don’t have to fight back how Kali does. Do it how El – or Jane – does.”

El chewed her lip, brows furrowed thoughtfully at his words. Billy watched her for a moment, before he leaned back in the bed until he was lying flat. He would leave her to her thoughts.

He was dozing off, and didn’t realize it until there was a rhythmic banging sound coming from downstairs that startled him awake. He sat up, looking over to El as she rose from where she had sat at the end of the bed, clutching her flannel shirt, and was now going to look out the window overseeing the lower floor of the warehouse, looking spooked. Billy got up to join her, eyes widening at the sight of a bunch of police officers holding guns and flashlights running through, looking for the occupants. Looking for _them_.

He turned just as a hand came down on his shoulder, and he flinched back instinctively before his eyes focused on the girl almost a head shorter than him, her other hand on El’s shoulder.

“Let’s go,” Kali whispered urgently, and they wordlessly followed her, running through the floor and up the stairs, even as several police officers called after them, ordering them to stop.

 _Yeah, fuck **that** , _he thought fiercely as they ran and met up with the rest of the crew.

“The hell’s going on?” Axel demanded.

“They found us!” Kali said tersely, and Axel’s hand went to the back of his pants, pulling out his gun from the waistband. “No, no, no!” Kali grabbed the gun in both hands, pushing down and away before Axel could aim at the police coming in just behind them. She crouched oddly, putting her hands out to all of them like she was telling them to stay, and he understood at the same moment the rest of them did, freezing in place and going silent right in time.

The officers came around the corner, shining their flashlights and their guns _right at them_ , and Billy could see how Kali was concentrating on keeping her powers up so that they wouldn’t be noticed. El was gripping onto Billy’s arm with both hands, watching with wide eyes as an officer passed them just close enough that he needed to take a step back. Wouldn’t do for the cop to feel him as he went by, after all. Billy didn’t think even Kali would be able to maintain the illusion of blank space then.

The cops all passed them, continuing their sweep of the building, and Kali waved them urgently to follow, and they ran back the way they’d come, finding their way outside through the emergency exit and to the van that had been left uncovered when they’d returned barely an hour before.

But there were cops waiting outside, which Billy supposed they should have expected, but no one had apparently thought of in the midst of their panic at being found.

And Axel, that _fucking idiot_ , shot behind them as they ran to the van, and the cops were immediately returning fire, except the fucking problem with that was that they had more people, more guns, and more ammo. They all crouched beside the van, using it as cover, and Billy wanted to _strangle_ Axel for continuing to shoot back.

“Do something, Kal,” Axel said desperately. “Do something!”

“Billy,” El whispered, tugging his sleeve, and his eyes snapped to her, because she sounded desperate in a way that made Billy wonder if she’d maybe been shot. But there was no blood, and she didn’t look to be in pain, just had an expression of insistent determination. “We have to go.”

“Yeah, we _got_ that!” Billy said in irritation, because clearly everyone knew that they needed to escape the police – but El shook her head.

“To Hawkins,” she said. “Have to go _now_.”

Billy blinked at her, stunned at the sudden decision to return, but he didn’t have time to wonder about the cause for it.

The others abruptly rose to their feet, and Billy knew that Kali had managed to trick the other cops based on the lack of gunshots coming their way. The others piled into the van, but Billy stayed outside, El in front of him as she looked at them in the van.

“Jane, Billy, _get in_ ,” Kali said when she turned to see them still standing there, sounding irritated. Her nose was bleeding too now, and Billy absently confirmed his mental theory that the blood was from pushing their powers probably harder than they were used to.

El shook her head, several times, saying, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, but I have to go back. My friends… My friends are in danger.” Billy’s gaze snapped from Kali to El, because he hadn’t known that. Had she seen something in “the dark place”? What could possibly be happening that El would be so desperately needed? Was it just a lie? He didn’t think so, but he couldn’t be sure of El’s tells yet so he wouldn’t be betting on it.

Axel pressed closer behind Kali, shoving his head forward to get El’s attention, voice tense. “This isn’t time for a talk. We gotta go right now!”

“Your mother sent you here for a reason, remember?” Kali said, looking more upset at the idea of El leaving than at the cops that were after them. “We belong together. _We_ are family.”

Billy understood, abruptly, just why Kali didn’t seem to like him. He had come in, El clearly seeing him as a sort of protector, and he had unwittingly played into that, taking on the role that Kali so desperately wanted. Kali wanted to be the protective older sibling, and she thought that Billy was already the big brother – she had even mentioned it before she knew who El was, that he was the “protective older brother”. She was threatened by his very presence.

But he didn’t have time to explain to her, how to assure her that that protective sibling role was still very much open, because he could hear the cops gathering their wits again, and he was pretty sure that Kali’s upset emotions or perhaps just her distraction was weakening whatever hold she had on their minds. And as much as he thought she was kind of a bitch and the rest of them were just straight up _crazy_ , he didn’t want them to get arrested.

“There’s nothing for you back there,” Kali went on insistently, eyes flickering to Billy and then back to El. “They cannot save you, Jane.”

“No,” El agreed. “But I can save them.”

El turned, walked quickly away, through an alley between buildings.

“Jane,” Kali called desperately. “ _Jane!_ ”

Billy backed away. “I’ll keep her safe,” he promised El’s sister, and her gaze snapped to him, eyes blazing, but he didn’t listen to whatever she might say, ducking low to avoid being seen as he ran, following El into the dark.

***

On the way back, El didn’t sleep. She was too fired up about what she’d seen in the dark place, and after that the whole explanation had fallen out, of how she’d gotten mixed up in a world she called “the Upside-Down” with actual, real-life _monsters_.

Honestly, he was shocked by the whole story, but not as shocked as he might have been a week ago. He’d seen some crazy shit in the past couple of days; how was an actual monster going to put a dent amidst all of this?

El said that she didn’t know what it was they were going into, but she was certain that it had to do with the Upside-Down world. She told him that she’d gone to see Hopper and Mike in the dark place, had seen them in the same place together, and Mike was screaming “it’s a trap”. Neither could guess what might be a trap, or who it might be for, but El seemed terrified that it was a trap set for Hopper. She hadn’t seen how it had ended, so her imagination was not being kind to her about the possibilities.

Billy stopped only twice for gas, and it was because he needed it. Otherwise it was pedal to the metal for most of the drive; out in the middle of nowhere, no cops were lurking to pull them over. Billy supposed that if they tried that El would use some of her powers to convince them not to try it or something. He didn’t know.

What had been a four-hour trip on their way up turned into just over three hours, and they got back to Hawkins around eleven at night. It was just when they reached the “Welcome to Hawkins” sign when El said suddenly, “Byers house.”

Billy jerked, because she’d been quiet for a while and he’d gotten used to the tense, expectant silence, and then he frowned as he processed her words.

“Kid, I’ve been here for a _week_ ; I don’t know where the fuck Byers lives – how am I supposed to get there?”

“I will guide again,” El told him. Which, yeah, that made sense.

They broke through the trees into a clearing around a house just as a screech broke through the night. It wasn’t human, wasn’t any animal Billy had ever heard, and it raised goosebumps on his arms just as he saw a – _thing_ – break out of the trees at the other side of the clearing. His brain couldn’t comprehend it, despite how he’d been expecting to see _something_ crazy tonight, but he could practically _see_ the menace around it as it rapidly approached the house.

“No, the _fuck_ you don’t,” Billy muttered furiously, slamming his foot down on the accelerator and jerking the wheel, aiming for the monster with prejudice.

The bumper crunched when the thing hit it, and it went flying with a loud screech. Billy saw it a few yards away struggling to get up with much less struggle than he would’ve hoped for, and with a muttered curse, he threw the car into park, grabbing the tire iron from the floor of the back seat at the same time. Throwing himself out of his car, he wielded the iron like a baseball bat and met the thing with a hard swing just as it leaped at him again with the creepiest chittering sound he’d ever heard.

It went crumbling to the ground, snarling, but then it got up again, easier this time as the tire iron hadn’t had as much impact as the car. It ran toward Billy, and he readied his makeshift weapon again when he heard a grunt from El, and then it was flying back into a tree so hard that Billy heard the crack of the wood breaking. It didn’t have time to drop to the ground before El was throwing it in the other direction – straight for the house.

It crashed through the window with the loud sound of shattering glass, and Billy heard a brief yell from several voices inside before it went silent. He ignored that for a moment though and looked over at El, panting a bit and letting his posture slacken, arm dropping to his side, though he still kept a tight grip on the tire iron, in case there were others that might come.

“Thanks, kid,” he said. She nodded, wiping absently at the blood that had dripped from her nose. He nodded toward the house. “Let’s go see who’s waiting for us inside.”

**Author's Note:**

> You guys I love Kali but her actions are problematic and slightly manipulative, so she just came out sounding a lot worse than I meant her to. Maybe I'll bring her back in a future fic or something. In any case, Billy is protective and he's viewing them under a harsher lens because of that.
> 
> Yay for Billy's communication skills! I meant for both of his conversations with El to lead back to Max so that he could soften up and move toward forgiving her more, but the conversation kept wanting to shift away and I thought putting another conversation in the drive back would break the tone too much, so that talk and forgiveness is going to have to happen later. I have an idea for two steps forward one step back type of deal, but we'll see how that goes too lol.
> 
> Anyway, hope you liked it - let me know!


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